


Remembrance

by hopeandjoy



Series: Natsume Week 2017 [4]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, May 18th: Flowers/Nature, Natsume Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 02:33:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10935150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeandjoy/pseuds/hopeandjoy
Summary: A youkai of an aster patch that lies beneath a tree asks Natsume to view the most precious memory of the woman who died here in the past. He agrees.





	Remembrance

Natsume meets the akayashi, who appropriately is named “Shion”, in a field of aster flowers in the forest that lies beneath a great tree. She says that she has lived ever since she was born beneath this tree. Sensei then under his breath says that she is a baby and that spirits of aster fields are only born when someone with great spiritual power has died in them. At this Natsume begins to back away until Sensei scoffs again and says that aster spirits are harmless, that they only hold on to the memories of those who happen to pass on from this world to the next inside of them.

“It’s true, Natsume-dono,” says Shion. “I mean you no harm.” Shion is tiny, barely standing above the flowers she lives in, and has a wispy voice. Her kimono is the same purple of the flowers around her, but her mask is a blank, pure white.

“Was there something you wanted me to do for you?” Natsume asks, for Shion had called out to him as he passed by. “Do you want me to return your name?”

“No, Natsume-dono, your grandmother had never challenged me. I just thought you might like to see the memory of the woman who died beneath this tree,” Shion says.

Natsume grimaces. “I don’t want to see someone’s dying moment.”

Shion, in response, laughs. “My kind doesn’t capture moments as sad as that. What we hold on to is the most precious memory of whoever had died here so that we and passersby may remember them even though they may be gone.”

Nyanko-sensei watches Shion closely, but doesn’t say anything in response. On some level, Natsume fears that this is a trap, but he wonders who could remember someone who had died all the way in the forest, underneath of a tree in a field of asters. “If you want to show me,” he says, “I’d be willing to watch.” Shion nodded and the world went white.

_In her lap was a newborn baby as she sat outside on the edge of her house. In the grass, a procession of small akayashi marched forth, carefully watching for obstacles such as puddles and rocks, but her daughter ignored them in favor of staring at her mother’s face and burbling._

_“Hitomi,” the woman said. “Isn’t it nice? We finally got a place, just the two of us.”_

_A pleasant breeze blew through the woman’s hair. Her baby reached up and placed a hand on her mother’s face, smiling. The woman found herself smiling too, looking on the face of her child. More than anything else in the entire world, the world that had always been harsh to the woman, she loved her daughter, the second person who had gazed at her with loving eyes._

Natsume blinks as he returns to the present. He knew that woman’s voice, he had seen her memories before. She was…

“Reiko?”

Shion nods. “Yes, it seems that the woman in my memory was Natsume Reiko. Or at least, so I thought. Apparently she was the only person who had existed in this area right before I was born who could see us so clearly. I had heard rumors that she had returned to this area, but if my memory was hers, that could not be right. But then I heard a conflicting rumor that it was not her who had returned but her grandson who had her power and resembled him closely. When I saw you, I just knew. You had that same aura around you.”

Natsume is silent for a moment before speaking. “That baby… She must have been my mother.”

“I see.”

“I’m happy…” Natsume starts. He feel himself blink back a few tears and then starts once again. “I’m happy that Reiko found someone she loved. I was worried that she was never happy.” _I was worried that I would never be happy, too,_ he thought. “I’ve only ever known my grandmother through the memories that akayashi share with me of her. Thank you for sharing with me another, Shion. Thank you for remembering Reiko.”

Shion smiles. “I am glad as well that someone else may remember those who slept beside me at my birth.”

**Author's Note:**

> shion, in addition to being a unisex first name, is the japanese word for the aster flower. in japanese flower language, it means "remembrance."
> 
> hitomi means "eye", as does the last character of natsume.


End file.
